Venice

Piazza San Marco

Heart of the Most Serene Republic of Venice and, at the same time, a living room of Europe. Piazza San Marco has always had this “glocal” vocation: symbol of Venetianity and multicultural environment par excellence. It is inevitable that this will be the first stop for anyone arriving in the city. A photo in the centre of this trapezoidal square will also be an abused rite, to turn up the nose of some overzealous local, but “has to do” absolutely. All around there are works of inestimable value: from the Basilica, to the bell tower, to the Palazzo Ducale. Wonders that the whole world envies and therefore deserve to be treated separately.

Basilica di San Marco

Having arrived in Piazza San Marco and having taken all the usual photos, the very first thing to do is to visit the Basilica of the same name. The reason is easy to say. It represents the living heritage of Roman, Byzantine and Venetian culture. Especially of the latter, since the inhabitants of the Serenissima, a proud people of sailors, have provided for centuries to embellish it and adorn it with artefacts from the most distant lands of the East.

Moreover, considering the myth of the church’s foundation, it could not be otherwise. Legend has it, in fact, that the need to build a temple arose following the stealing of the saint’s relics from Alexandria of Egypt by two Venetian merchants. The golden mosaics inside do not leave even the most tenacious of the agnostics indifferent. To see, in the Museum of the Basilica, the Four Horses of San Marco. Until the 1980s, these sculptures from Constantinople (stolen at the end of the 18th century by Napoleon Bonaparte and returned to the city in 1815 after the defeat of Waterloo) were placed on the terrace of the Basilica. Subsequently, the need arose to preserve them from the elements by lodging them in a specific room of the Museum set up in the spaces above the north-western atrium. Those currently visible to the outside are therefore identical copies.

Palazzo Ducale

Palazzo Ducale is a must for anyone wishing to explore the historical, cultural and political importance of Venice, for centuries the bridge city between the West and the East. A majestic architecture, emblem of Venetian Gothic, further enhanced by the enormous quantity of works of art preserved in the three large buildings that make up the structure. A structure that until 1797 followed the developments of the millennial Republic of Venice (Palazzo Ducale was the seat of the Doge of Venice), later passing first into French, then Austrian, until the Italian annexation in 1866. Between the end of the 1800s and the beginning ‘900 the young Italian State provided for a radical restoration of the Ducal Palace. A far-sighted and not at all obvious initiative, given the enormous amount of problems and inequalities that the unification brought with it. Since the 1920s, Palazzo Ducale has been the headquarters of the Superintendence for the Environmental and Architectural Heritage of Venice and the Lagoon. Furthermore, since 1996 it has been an integral part of the city’s Civic Museums system.

Canal Grande

Along the 3800 meters, Grand Canal – “Canalaso” as the Venetians call it – is still the main axis for city transport. A ride on a vaporetto or, better still, a gondola is therefore a must. In Venice there is a kind of collective gondola taxi that the inhabitants call “ferry”. It stands and connects the two banks of the Grand Canal in different points.

Peggy Guggenheim Museum

Picasso, Kandinsky, Magritte, De Chirico, Boccioni, Dalì are just some of the artists whose works have become part of the Peggy Guggenheim collection over time. One of the most important museums in the world on European and American art of the twentieth century based in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni on the Grand Canal. In addition to the permanent with the works of this American collector buried, among other things, in the garden of the palace (Marguerite “Peggy” Guggenheim 1898-1979) the museum is characterized by an intense calendar of activities with exhibitions, debates and training initiatives aimed at children.

Murano Glass Museum

You can’t come to Venice and don’t take the lagoon tour. The unavoidable stage of this tour is the Murano Glass Museum. Seven routes, from the fourteenth century to the contemporary, to learn about and study this ancient form of art, heritage of the city and of the whole of Italy.